The 2024 Act — Surrogacy Law in Ireland, Explained

What the Act actually is

The Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act 2024 — Number 18 of 2024 on the statute book — is the first piece of Irish primary legislation to regulate assisted human reproduction comprehensively. It was passed by the Oireachtas in summer 2024 and signed by the President in July 2024. It runs to more than 230 sections across 14 parts and regulates IVF, donor-assisted reproduction, embryo and stem-cell research, posthumous reproduction, pre-implantation genetic testing, and — most relevant for this site — domestic and international surrogacy undertaken by Irish intending parents.

Surrogacy is one of the Act's central pillars. Before 2024, an Irish couple could go through a surrogacy arrangement abroad, return home with a child, and discover that the State recognised only one of them as a legal parent — usually the genetic father. The non-genetic intended parent had no parental rights at all. The Act sets out, for the first time in Irish law, how a surrogacy arrangement should be approved before it begins, how it should be supervised, and how the resulting child becomes legally the child of the intending parents.

The model: altruistic, non-commercial, regulated

The Act adopts an altruistic-only model. A surrogate may receive reasonable expenses — medical costs, lost earnings, travel, insurance — but cannot be paid a fee for being a surrogate. Parental orders are limited to "permitted surrogacies": arrangements that have been pre-approved by the regulator (AHRRA), where the surrogate is altruistic, where there is no commercial intermediary, and where the strict criteria of the Act are met.

This is a deliberate Irish model. It is more restrictive than the United States, where commercial surrogacy is permitted in many states, and more permissive than France, Germany or Italy, where surrogacy is prohibited entirely. Mason Hayes Curran's analysis describes it as "a progressive step in modernising Ireland's reproductive rights" while noting the practical limits the altruistic model imposes.

The four parts that matter for surrogacy

• Part 9 — the regulator (AHRRA). Establishes the Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority. Commenced 13 October 2025 (via Statutory Instrument No. 469 of 2025), with the exception of the voluntary register of donors and donor-conceived persons. Press release.
• Part 11 — domestic surrogacy. Sets out who may be an intending parent, who may be a surrogate, the eligibility criteria, the requirement for AHRRA pre-approval, and the requirements for independent legal advice and counselling. Not yet fully commenced as of April 2026.
• Part 12 — parental orders. The court process by which legal parentage is transferred from the surrogate to the intending parents after birth. Not yet commenced as of April 2026, despite an earlier Department of Health indication that it would be commenced in mid-2025.
• Part 13 — international surrogacy. Recognition framework for Irish intending parents who pursue surrogacy abroad. Not yet commenced.

Our long-form blog explainer covers each of these parts in more detail: The 2024 Surrogacy Act Explained, Parental Orders, Step by Step, and What is AHRRA?.

What you can do today

Even with most operational provisions still awaiting commencement, several things are real, actionable, and within reach:

1. Get independent legal advice now. The Act will require it; getting it early de-risks the years ahead. See our forthcoming Legal Process page and the Law Society's Gazette guidance.
2. Begin counselling. The Act requires it for the surrogate and recommends it for intending parents. Accredited fertility counsellors are available through several Irish clinics today.
3. Start medical preparation. IVF cycles, embryo creation and storage, and donor-gamete arrangements are not blocked by the unfinished commencement. Your fertility clinic can begin work on the medical side now.
4. Watch for AHRRA opening for applications. Once the surrogacy parts of the Act commence and AHRRA is fully operational, intended parents will need pre-approval before any embryo transfer takes place. The window between AHRRA opening and demand spiking will be short — being legally and medically ready when it opens shortens your timeline materially.
5. If you already have a child via past surrogacy, retrospective parental orders are intended under Part 12 — but Part 12 has not yet commenced. The Department of Health's stated plan was 1 June 2025; that did not happen, and reporting in late 2025 / early 2026 confirms the delay. Continue to track this; if you are in this position, an Irish family-law solicitor experienced in AHR matters is the single most useful relationship you can build now.

The amendment bill

In October 2025 the Joint Committee on Health published its pre-legislative scrutiny report on a proposed Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) (Amendment) Bill. The committee made 18 recommendations covering, among other things, the international surrogacy framework, the residency criteria for intending parents, and the criteria for "permitted" arrangements. The amendment bill — once introduced and passed — is expected to fix gaps in the parent Act and clear the path for full commencement.

For a family deciding whether to begin a surrogacy journey now, the practical takeaway is: the law is settled in direction (altruistic-only, AHRRA-supervised, parental-order route), but unsettled in detail. Build the relationships and the medical work that will be useful under any version of the Act, and avoid making irreversible commercial commitments — particularly internationally — that depend on a specific reading of provisions that have not yet commenced.

Authoritative sources, in one place

• The Act itself — Irish Statute Book.
• Citizens Information — Surrogacy in Ireland.
• Gov.ie press release — AHRRA established 13 October 2025.
• Oireachtas — Bill page (with passage history).
• Mason Hayes Curran — Surrogacy in Ireland (legal insight).
• Law Society Gazette — "Parental orders limited to 'permitted surrogacies'".

Surrogacy.ie is an editorial information service. The text on this page is general information about Irish surrogacy law and is not legal advice. You should consult a qualified Irish family-law solicitor for advice about your own situation. Updated 27 April 2026.